Page 13 of Like the Season
And, in the end, it meant they’d reconnected.
With his phone’s GPS guiding him, it took him less than forty minutes to find her apartment complex. Not exactly the newest, but fortunately it didn’t look like a total dump, either. The complex sat built on the side of a hill, with the parking lots lower than the buildings. There were a series of steps and sloping sidewalks to negotiate leading up to the buildings.
With his suitcase and his carryon in hand, he headed toward her building.
Why am I terrified?
Terrified was the most apt descriptor of how he felt.
Which didn’t make sense. He’d handled the BCC’s questions during workshops, dealt with the press, and had managed to successfully survive heartbreak, get through college, land himself a job, and adult to the point he had a retirement account and owned a house.
I’m a father.
He’d missed all the little things. Being there for her birth, for all her firsts. Not being able to tuck her in. Not being able to celebrate her accomplishments or mourn her losses with her.
Not being able to hold her when she didn’t feel good.
Not being there for her when she had no one else.
I will find Helen’s parents and chew them new assholes.
They had no excuse for not contacting the military and asking them to track down his father and contact them. He would have taken care of Helen, of Ella.
His responsibilities.
It felt like the longest walk of his life, heading up that sidewalk to Ella’s apartment. Located on the first floor of the three-story building, it was a corner unit. Generic white horizontal blinds hung in the narrow window next to the door and in a larger window to the left of it.
After a couple of deep breaths, he knocked.
When she answered the door, her tentative smile sent his own heart racing. She wore blue scrubs with a grey, long-sleeved T-shirt under her top. Before he could say anything, she threw her arms around him in a strong hug before finally letting him go so he could step inside.
She shut the door behind him and, once he’d set his bags down, she hugged him again, now crying.
He held her, not saying anything, knowing there really wasn’t anythingtosay at that moment.
Words were meaningless.
But he hoped the fact that he showed up proved to her he was serious about wanting her in his life. Wanting to be a part of her life.
Wanting to figure out how to be a dad to an adult.
“I can’t believe you’re really here,” she tearfully said, not trying to end their embrace. “I wish Mom was still here. I mean…I know she would have wished things would be different between her and you, but…” More sniffles. “I’m glad you’re here,” she whispered. “Thank you.”
“I’m here. I wish I could stay here longer.”
“I’m sorry I bolted.” She looked up at him. “Thanks for not being a jerk, and for proving me wrong.”
He smiled. “Oh, Icanbe a jerk. Just ask the people who work for me. Besides, Iama sadist.”
She laughed. “But everyone I met at Venture insisted you’re such a nice guy.”
“It’s the Minnesohtah accent, ah, you betcha.” He dropped it. “Fools them all. Makes me a tricky sadist.” Back into the accent. “Besides, none of dem dere folks work for me, doncha know.”
Another sniffling laugh, and this time she released him so she could wipe at her eyes. “Come on in and I’ll show you around. I hope you’re okay with spaghetti. I meant to get something better from the store but I had to work later today than I planned. We were short-handed. I’m off for the next three days, though, so we can go grocery shopping tomorrow.”
“Spaghetti sounds great.”
The one-bedroom apartment was small, but she kept it clean and tidy. He wondered if her older furniture had belonged to Helen and decided not to go there yet.
